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Everyday in the news, we’re seeing more reports on the growths of China and India. Nowadays, the citizens of the West are not of one mind whenever they discuss whatever in regarding to these two countries. Some people in the West appreciate the rises of China and India. Some people are fearful of the rises of these two countries. Understandably so, because these two countries, although geographically close by, these two countries have very different cultures and politics, and these two countries have even less commonalities with the West. With the eyes of outsiders, West populations are wearied of these two rising giants, because these two giants’ economies and militaries are growing in bounds and leaps as each day goes by.

There are people out there believing that these two giants are just recapturing their past glories, because these two giants’ had been the global economic engines before. In fact, China in particular, had been the world economic engine for centuries. Before industrialization, even through tough times and regime changes, China had always been able to recapture her world standing as a global economic powerhouse or superpower. Only when the industrial age had come which then the West was able to subdue China. If I’m not wrong, there were eight countries from the West and elsewhere that came to divide and conquer China in late 1800s and early 1900s.

The people who are supporting China and India rises probably believe that these two countries are just recapturing their old glories. Nonetheless, others are fearing that China and India rises will change the world order’s status quo. So far, China and India are still developing, but they are developing at breakneck speeds. On the other hand, the rest of the world are stood still in regarding to economic activities. The fears of China and India rises exacerbate as China and India continue to expand economically and militarily. What worse is that China and India are competing against each other for world’s resources. Rich resource countries are loving to attract these two giants’ capitals, but the rest of the world is fearing the competition between the two giants might get out of hand and launch the world into wars and destructions.

People are wondering why China is not a democracy, but yet this country is able to rise from ash and go on to capture the world’s wealth (or recapturing her past glories). India is growing fast, but when comparing India against China, India’s development is decades behind China. Infrastructure wise, China is urbanizing and developing at breakneck speed while India is trying too hard to mimic China’s infrastructure developing progress. In short, India wants to overtake China in developing in everything, but at the moment China is ahead by miles. In term of population though, if I’m not wrong India is growing her population faster than China each year. This means India might be able to catch up to China in population size.

In the TEDx Talks video right after the break, Rush Doshi explains why China and India for so long had been rich and powerful; although China and India were subdued by the West and elsewhere when the industrial age arrived, there are signs that China and India once again recapture past wealths and glories. Rush Doshi looks at the world through the geographical lens, and so he claims that geographically advantages allow China and India to develop huge populations. Rush Doshi then proclaims that at any point in history whenever China and India could be just as productive as the rest of the world, due to huge population sizes, China and India could lead in wealths and glories. Check out the video right after the break and enjoy!!!